Fiber 1!

Yesterday evening Sam and I went for a drive. Our first order of business was to ride by Gillette's castle and see what their hours would be so we could be there bright and early today.

We drive through several herds of deer who are very accustomed to automobiles and will stroll up to the window and ask you for a light.

We twist and turn and wind and wend and finally arrive at a nearly abandoned parking lot where we find a sign saying, "Closes at Sunset." It is about seven minutes shy of sunset at this point. Literally. We decide to do the castle at light speed.

This is the castle that was built by the old eccentric character actor in the 1920's. He lived there alone, in the dark, then died and willed the castle to whoever was smart enough to do something cool with it. So it's a state park.

This castle is made of jaggedly cut stones and very tall and angular. It is VERY creepy and in the dark/at Halloween would be the most ultimate place for a party ever. We peer in the windows. It looks sort of like Irene's house.

The view off the back terrace is staggering. Some river. I think the Connecticut one. And just trees and screaming wildcats and water as far as you can see.

I felt like feudal lord Honaker.

So then it's dark.

We leave, and decide to follow the signs to the "scenic route." This "scenic route" turns out to be a winding twisting narrow hill of death. There are signs that say "SCHOOL BUS X-ING." And a street called, "Bone Hill."

We stifle our sobs and turn around. We drive to Chester.

There is a Chester in every state I have visited in the past five weeks. This Chester is adorable. And quaint. And I don't say that deroggatorially. Isn't a word. Is now.

All of the shops and restaurants in this Chester (which stretches on for four blocks, honest) have signs on the doors that say, "Open By Chance."

Which is awesome. The strange boy with a hawk nose and pretty eyes who I don't know on the orange couch agrees with me.

Philia is sitting next to me eating soggy soy crisps. Which reminds me of Maggie.

Soggy.

I've got another Starbucks option I'm going to try. I'm getting recommendations.

What did we do after that. This is becoming a record for me to remember this trip, so sorry if it is getting tedious.

Oh- we drove to Middleton because we were animals and starving and that was our best guess at where we could find the nearest Burger King. Thirty minutes away. But we were right.

Then we come back to the house and assemble in the grand parlor with half the cast and two of us watch Mad Men while the rest of everyone cackles and makes jokes and is VERY disrespectful. I swear. Adam, some people. The associate choreographer and I were the only ones demonstrating appropriate reverence.

Then eleven o'clock strikes and the entire cast evaporates. Here in Connecticut everyone goes to bed at 7:30 pm every night, so 11pm was a real stretch.

Today, Sam and I got up early and drove to Mystic. Which was really lovely. Sailboats and displays of pandas. They have a small drawbridge that works by dropping these two enormous ivory colored cubes of concrete to one side. When the bridge is going to open a bell shrills and all of Mystic becomes hushed. They watch.

Everyone there was SO KIND. I went into the army surplus store on the main street because I am all about getting a pair of those baggy pocketed camo pants, and the old man behind the counter was so dear. He had a slight gap between his front teeth. Or was that the man in the parking lot booth, who, when I informed him that when we arrived, there was no one in the booth to give us a ticket, smiled and said, "Well, then you just drive right through. We can't very well penalize you for my not being in the booth, can we?" This boggled Sam's mind.

We got very close to some ducklings, talked to a large brunette woman in a bright pink mumu walking her bichon frises and then climbed a very tall rusty staircase that followed the side of a hill. I was sure at the top we would empty out into an asylum. One of those asylums with spacious lawns where the allow visitors to see their inmates and have picnics and pretend their are not locked up. But it turned out to be nursing home. We then walk until we find the huge Victorian house that had clearly suffered a massive fire many years before. Sam laughs and takes pictures of this house for his mother. A concrete wall has been erected around this house as well as a wire fence. I suppose to prevent people like me from going inside and looking for cats and pretending to be a ghost. If it had been dark though, I'd have tried to climb.

We then lunch at Mystic Pizza. Which is not where the movie was shot but is still covered in stills from the film and shows the movie on loop.

This pizza was good. It was not even approaching Artichoke or Papa Johns.

We watch some men fishing. That was my favorite part of the morning.

We drive back, collect the courtesans and Philia and whoever it is that is sitting on that orange couch right now and drive to the Haddam Neck Fair. We have obtained the Fair itinerary from the Company Manager earlier and are very excited by the contents. Let me show you:

11:30 am- Ox Pull

12:30 pm- Skillet Throwing Competition

1:30 pm- The Baby Show

3:30 pm- Multiple Birth Contest


Not even kidding.

So we are all expecting tar pits and corn cobs.

We arrive.

Acres of parking, Ferris wheels, the scrambler, so much livestock, fried dough, etc.

Crowds.

The first thing we do is raid the bunny tent. There. Are. So. Many. Cute. Fat. Round. Baby. Bunnies.

Sam took a lot of pictures. I grinned a lot.

Also huge angry chickens.

We pet the camels, the llamas, the ponies, the sheep.

We eat oil.
We examine the tent that features locked cages full of the prize-winning pies, and the prize-winning snaps, and the prize-winning floss.
I get sick and drive Sam's car back to Victorian England.
I discuss groceries and pigs with Carol. During this discussion I decide not to google any of the actors/choreographers/etc. I meet while I am here until after I am back to New York. That way I won't find out anything that might shock me, like, oh, I just spent the afternoon sorting socks with Chita Rivera.
Then a bunch of us drive almost to Rhode Island to see the movies. We are the only ones in the theatre. It is very thrilling to shout at the top of your lungs things like, "GUYS, I'M GOING TO GET A SODA, BE RIGHT BACK!" in a movie theater.
I wore my 3-D glasses on my way to get a diet coke because I had noticed on the way in that the carpeting in the theater was dark purple with moons and comets and stars. I thought this might be fascinating to view in 3-D. But I only tripped a few times, so the experience wasn't all that I'd hoped it'd be.
OH. And MOST importantly. I learned how to milk a cow.